Hottest Links: myRA, Young Money, And Snapchat Is Stupid

Hottest links for Friday, January 31st, the late edition (see Thursday’s edition here). Get our free daily newsletter (which HAS BEEN RECENTLY UPDATED) and never miss a single linkfest. Also, now if you sign up you will get our new e-book on value investing.

Top stories for today can be found below. To get you through Friday and into the weekend, we’ve got some great stories, including a break down of 2013 hedge fund performance, an interesting article about forever stamps, and a warning that Chinese investors could be overextended in Chinese property.

Hottest Links: Stories

Value Investing

‘Young Money’ – timely new book details what it’s really like working on Wall Street

Journalist Kevin Roose from New York Magazine has a new book out. Titled ‘Young Money.’ it follows eight (real) young bankers over the first three years of their Wall Street careers. Most of are in IBD. [Sarah Butcher, efinancialcareers]

myRA Retirement Plans: Everything You Need to Know

As if we didn’t have enough acronyms in financial services, this week we added a new one: “myRA” — which stands for “my Retirement Account.” [Lauren Foster, Inside Investing]

Redefining Insurers’ Investment Portfolios to Drive Profitability

As we begin 2014, there is no doubt that insurers are faced with a set of challenges that will incline them to reexamine their investment portfolios and overall approach to asset allocation. [David Lomas, Institutional Investor]

Thoughts on Portfolio Construction

We believe that portfolio construction is more an art than a science as there are many ways to construct a portfolio. The main purpose of constructing a portfolio is to balance opportunity (e.g., upside potential) with the loss of capital that comes from bad outcomes. [Michael Shearn, BeyondProxy]

Forever stamps: An investment that can’t be licked

In these days of manic-depressive financial markets, it’s nice to be able to put your money into something that isn’t designed to make you rich, but that at least is pretty much guaranteed to always rise in value. And that, on occasion, can post a nice tax-free gain — most recently, 6.5% — overnight. [Allan Sloan, Term Sheet]

Now that 2013 is over, we thought we’d aggregate how prominent hedge funds performed. While some funds turned in solid numbers (Glenview & Appaloosa), others put in more marginal performances. [Market Folly]

Snapchat is Stupid (but I could be wrong)

Snapchat and the entire “ephemeral web” concept is the goofiest thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine why people would want to be invested in it. The idea that disappearing content will ever have value – or that its transmission can be broadly monetized beyond a small niche of hardcore freak-users – is beyond my imaginative abilities. [Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker]

Greenberg: Why ADT Is Appalling

ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT) said its customer growth in its fiscal first quarter, ended Dec. 27, didn’t meet its expectations and that it has “implemented actions, including improvements in our dealer channel and lead generation process, to regain subscriber traction in the future.” [Herb Greenberg, Herb On The Street]

Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI): You sell, I’ll buy

Richard Kinder, the CEO of Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI), is a brilliant operator and a brilliant capital allocator. He is a self-made billionaire with a net worth of roughly $9B. [Glenn Chan’s Random Notes on Investing]

Hedge Fund Replication: A Practitioner’s Scorecard

In this note, we provide a candid assessment of the successes and failures of the space and introduce a framework of five criteria – a “scorecard” – as a guide for potential investors. [Andrew Beer, AllABoutAlpha.com]

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), the world’s biggest money manager by assets under management, has sold Spanish and Italian government bonds over the past few weeks, two of the world’s best-performing government bond markets last year. [Min Zeng, MoneyBeat]

Hottest Links: Not The Onion

Hitler, Pill-Popping Cake Freak, Is Recalled in New Bio

When the Fuehrer came to the table, he ate beans and greens, leaving room for dessert. He planned to push vegetarianism as a way of life after the war. Until then, he allowed guests to eat the dead meat of the animals he loved, while he nibbled on bunny food, noodles, dry bread and cakes washed down with peppermint tea or maybe, on special days, a low-alcoholic beer. [Manuela Hoelterhoff, Bloomberg]